Not a good buy

I'm not a camera guru, so I didn't think very hard about picture quality when buying this camera. I figured in this day and age no matter what camera you get it's going to take reasonable pictures. That was a false assumption on my part. This camera does not take satisfactory pictures, especially in motion. I had a Canon that was several years dated, the same basic size and took better pictures. Along with that, Sony cameras now greatly frustrate me. Their batteries, memory cards, USB cords, battery chargers, and pretty much any other accessory you can imagine is different for almost every camera. It's always difficult to find what you need on the go and the memory card is hardly adaptable with anything. If I could go back in time I wouldn't have bought this camera, and won't be buying more Sony cameras. By the way, I am not a generally anal consumer, and this is the first product I've bought on Amazon that I was unsatisfied with.

BIg bang for the buck...

This is a wonderful little camera. It takes AWESOME pictures overall and I am very pleased with it. The only reason I couldn't really give it 5 stars is I would like a more powerful zoom on it. 3x just don't really cut it much. Just like virtually all other digital cameras it requires ALOT of light for the best pictures. Using the flash will almost always result in red eye pic's but that is just the nature of the beast.

I HIGHLY recommend this camera for a starter camera that is virtually idiot proof and great for beginner's.

Just Don't Buy It

Don't buy this camera if you want to capture important once in a lifetime moments. This camera is a waste of time and money. I met Dr. Ben Carson and went up to take a photo with him and his wife there was a long line (as you can imagine) and I had a chance to get only one shot and it was AWFUL! All of us looked yellowy-orange, our faces were washed out from the flash and the remainder of the picture was dark even though the room we were in was well lit.

I have to retake a photo at least 3-5 times EVERYTIME to get a decent shot. To be fair, the video camera has pretty good image quality but the mic is located on the UNDERSIDE of the camera so sound from your recordings is usually pretty bad. This camera is a waste of time and money, I want to take it back soo bad but I think I'm past the 90 day return. :(

Great first camera.

I picked up this camera for my daughter for $90 on sale. She is 9 and had some birthday money so she paid for half. She is very excited to have a "real" camera finally as opposed to the disposable point and shoot cameras we always gave her before. We are going to Japan on vacation soon and I wanted photos from her perspective. It is very easy for her to use and she likes the red color. I love that it came with a rechargeable battery but wasn't thrilled that it needed a special Sony memory card. However the memory card plugs right in to our computer so she can download the photos that way or through the cord that came with it. It also came with cables to plug it into the t.v. for direct video play but we haven't tried that yet.

The Reason for the Mixed Reviews

Are you confused by the most polarized set of reviews on Amazon? I was. Some said it took wonderful pictures; some said it took terrible pictures. It was as though half the cameras were defective. They weren't and they aren't. Here's the deal: this camera is a little more prone to bluring than some other, mostly larger cameras. In technical terms, it has only one aperture setting, and it's pretty wide, which means the depth of the image that is in focus is somewhat shallow. Also, the sensor is not the most sensitive, so, even with the large aperture, it needs plenty of light or it will set for longer exposures and get bluring from camera shake. Finally, the built-in image stabilization is limited and will only help if you don't shake it much. This all adds up to a tendency to take blurry pictures, especially indoors.

So with all that, why did I give it four stars? Because the little camera is fully capable of taking sharp pictures. Believe me when I say I know what sharp pictures are: I have an A550 with a Zeiss 24-70 lens. I also have an excellent (and highly recommended) DSC-100 with Zeiss optics, two aperture settings, and the option of full manual control.

The first pictures I tried with the DSC-180W were indoors in available light (no flash). The results were abysmal. The next thing I tried was using the flash. The results were mixed, because the camera's autofocus system was confused by the complex scene, and the depth of focus is shallow. Then, still indoors, I aimed at something fairly flat with the flash, and voila, it produced a picture sharp enough that it took full advantage of all the pixels. That's all the resolution you can ask for. I tried it at long range and short range, with zoom and wide-angle, and continued to get good results.

The next day, I took it outdoors along with my DSC-100 and shot a number of scenes with both cameras for comparison. The DSC-180W did well. It was a little more contrasty than the 100, and the colors were a little more saturated, both of which I attribute to in-camera processing. I put the images into Photoshop and was able to extract the shadow detail that had been lost to the contrast. Of course, the 180W's more contrasty, saturated pictures looked better in some ways. Saturation aside, the two cameras agreed well on color rendition, indicating no major chromatic aberation.

Understand that I was looking at these images on a 24 inch monitor and then blowing them up even more. And I've shot some amazing things with the DSC-100, which, when new, cost four times what the 180W costs today. Used DSC-100s command rediculously high prices today for what they are. My point is that I was not easy on the 180W.

Other notes: The screen is very bright. You have to press the shutter button harder than I'm used to, so squeeze when you shoot, or you'll create camera shake.

I gave the camera four starts, because it's a good deal for the dollar. It's way more compact than the 100. If you buy it, don't set unrealistic expectations. Shooting indoors, use the flash (which will only work on fairly close subjects) or use a tripod or set it on a bean bag. Don't shoot into complex scenes of varying distances and expect it to put everything into simultaneous focus. You CAN have high expectations when you shoot landscapes and almost anything outdoors from a reasonable distance. Depth of focus grows with the distance from the camera. The optics are not bad, in spite of what some reviewers have said. I got good resolution many times in many circumstances, so the optics are just fine. Those reviewers caused the bluring with camera shake and focus issues, just as I did on my first few shots.

I bought this camera for my wife so that she could do some independent picture taking on our upcoming trip to Europe. I could have sent it back, but I decided it was a keeper.

I hope this helps you with your decision.
Tim